Fort Worth weekly gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-04-22
THE LAW TO THE LETTER.
An Important Letter from Hon. r. n.
Hall, Commissioner Of the General
Land Office.
The Land Law, and Not the Resolutions of
the Land Board to Determine the
Rights of Claimants.
AUSTIN, Ten, April Il, 1887.

AUSTIN, TEX, April IA, 1887.
| To the Editor of the Gazette.
| For the benefit and information of pur-
chasers of school lands, will you kindly
publish the accompanying characteristic
and eminently appropriate letter from
Hon. R. NJ. Hall, Commissioner of the
General Land Office?
That you and your readers interested in
the subject treated of may understand
and appreciate the Importance of the
| information contained in this letter,
l will explain the circumstances which
called it forth. The eigth section of the
act of April u, 1888, providing for the
sale, lease, ETC., of lands belonging to
the common school fnnd, provided that
| the proposed purchaser of land, CLASH
| fed as agricultural, shall file al affidavit
that he intends that it shall be actually
settled within six months. And it further
provides that the money, 80 OF appraised
value, shall be forfeited in case Of
! failure to settle within that time. The
! State Land Board Created by said act of
! April u, 1883, and charged with the sale
of these lands under the prOVisions) de-
clared on December s, 1885, by "resOlu-
| ton No 49," which was amendatory Of
resolution No. Is of this board, !"
among other things, that applicants to
purchase as actual settlers, must
"settle upon and improve the
! land within ninety Gays
from date of awards by the board" etc.,
and that failure to comply with this and
other provisions of the resolution, "shall
work forfeiture of all money paid on
and ali claims to the said land without
| judicial proceedings" The oath pre-
scribed by resolution nineteen" is en-
! bodied in the form for "applic&tiOn and
! obligation to purchase as an actual set
tier" These blank "applica-
! tiOns" were generously and
gratuitously furnished by the board. l
! send you one In the early part of the
| year I had filed with the Land Board s
number of applications for persons pur-
! posing to settle in Carson and other Pan
! handle counties, and had paid for them
! the first installment of the appraised
value. These applications were doubtless
made in good faith, and the pro-
! posed purchasers evidently desired
! to secure homes. But it soon became
| apparent to them that in consequence of
| the prOtracted drOuth, failure of crops,
/
could not possibly comply with the thirty
| days provisions Of "Resolution No.
! 49," and in this emergency wrote
to myself and others, asking if they could
| get an extension OF time to enable
them TO save their purchases. I applied
! to Commissioner Hall, who is now
| charged, under the new law, with the
management and sale Of these lands to
! ,n inf yvb ba int 70 m
force the provisions of the law, act Of
April y, 1888, or the State Land Board
resolutions and regulations. His reply
is short, sharp and decisive. The set
! tiers, who propose to make homes for
!. their families on the school lands pur-
! chased from the state, will
understand and appreciate his timely dec
! laration that "where the law gives such
| claimants rights which the Land Board
! by resolutions has attempted to limit, the
| law and not the resolutions will be fol-
/ lowed" and they will hold it in grateful
remembrance. Respectfully,
RHOADs FISHER.
The following is the section referred to:
GENERAL LAND OFFICE,
AUSTIN, TEX April I, 1887.
Major Rhoads Fisher, Austin, Texas:
DEAR SIR-In reply to your inquiry,
can only state that, so far as my official
action is concerned, the law, as embraced
in the act of April -, 1883, will be looked
| TO in determining the right Of claimants
of land under it's provisions, and where
the law gives such claimants rights which
the.land board, by resolutions, have at
tempted to limit, the laWa not the
resolutions, viii be followed. Yours re-
| spectfullg, r ~ HALL,
Commissioner.